Parkway Day Trip: Germans in Illinois

Our first stop on our Parkway Community School trip to Southern Illinois was to Waterloo where we visited the St. Paul's UCC Church. Although the building was new, they'd incorporated several items from their old German Church.
The Baptismal font say "Let the little Children come to me."
But, the most interesting was the steeple which has a rooster on top. We learned that German (mostly Protestant) churches had a rooster, not a cross on top---often attached to a weather vane. One Catholic Church in St. Louis does have a rooster---St. Liborius. Click here for a sketch which is at a different angle showing what looks like a rooster.

While some think the rooster is there to get you up early in the morning and some think it's because St. Peter said, "Before the cock crows three times. . .", another source says, "The rooster at the far end of the roof adds a finishing touch to the exterior of the church. A weathervane was a human touch added to Colonial churches. Besides its obvious practical purpose, the rooster is a symbol of human nature, fickle in the wind of temptation." Our tour guide said that the word for wind in Greek was similar to the word for rooster. So, the rooster, rotating on a weather vane on a church represents the Holy Spirit---a Mighty Wind.
For lunch, we went to The Dreamland Palace in Foster's Pond, IL. The bar in the back is original when part of the building was a tavern. The part we are eating in was a general store. This was a stage coach stop at one time, too, bringing passengers from the riverboats. We had Black Forest Chicken Schnitzel, German potato salad, home-made rolls, green beans, and Apple Dumpling for dessert.
The owner, Mr. Lang entertained us with his stories and shtick. Click here for more information.
That afternoon, we went to Maeystown which is on the Historic Register. It is a small town lost in time with an ice cream shop, an antique shop, a general store/souvenir shop. Serveral buildings were interesting including the church.
It was memorable for the organ music which we enjoyed while we were visiting.
This building isn't particularly old, but they did just have the steeple replaced. The circles would have had clocks in the original church.
Right next to the church was the original church, a one room structure which at one time housed the pastor AND was the place of worship---a curtain separated the living quarters from the church.
It is still used today for choir practice---so they are able to say it is in continuous use.
The old mill in town had an interesting little museum.
If you look carefully at the bottom two windows, you'll see that the stone looks a little different. At one time this was a garage for auto repairs.
You can see in the photo above how it looked as a garage. Maeystowns' claim to fame is its limestone gutters.Unfortunately, at times those gutters were pretty difficult to navigate. . .
preventing some from getting to the Sweet Shop for an ice cream cone. To their credit, the white building at the bottom of the hill is getting a handicap entrance. The red brick building has a B and B along with a General Store.